The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-11-24
PATAGCNiA'S FATE.
How . South American Country Was A
sorted by Its NeishborS

How sout, American Country Was Abb
sorsed by Its NeiGhbors-
There used to be place called Pata-
gonia- 1t appears on our biographies
now as a drear and uninhabitable
waste, upon which herds of wild horses
and cattle Craze, that are hunted for
their flesh by few bands of savage
Indians OF immense stature" 1 am
quoting from a school-book published
In 1886, and in common use in this
country. The same geography gives
similar information about 1.-The ArSen-
tine Confederation" 1t makes tie
Argentines roar with rage to call their
country 'the Argentine Confederation"
1t would be just as polite and proper to
call this the Confederate States of
America" A bitter, bloody war was
fought to wipe that name off the map,
but our publishers still insist upon
keeping it there. 1t is not a confeder-
alton; it is Nation, with big IN"
like ours-one and inseparable. united
we stand. divided we fall. and all that
sort of thing-the Argentine Republic.
To call it any thing else is an insult to
the patriots who fought to make it so,
and reflection upon our own intelli-
gence.
Several years ago Patagonia was di-
vided between Chill and the Argentine
Republic. the Ministers from the
United States to those two countries
doing the carving. The SUBMITS of
the Cordilleras were fixed as the bound
airy lines. Chill took the Strait of
Magellan and the strip along the Pa
cific coast, between the mountains and
the sea, and the Argentine Republic
the pampas, the archipelago of TERRA
del Fuego being divided between them.
Since the partition ranchmen have
been pushing southwark with great
rapidity, and now the vast territory
is practically occupied. There are no
more wild cattle or horses there than
in Kansas. and the dreary, uninhabited
wastes of Patagonia have gone into
oblivion with the Great American
Desert" The remnant of vast tribe
Of abOrigines still occupies the interior,
but the Indian problem of the Ar
gentine Republic was solved in a sum-
mary way. There was considerable an
noyance on the frontier from bands of
rowing savages, who used to come north
in the winter time, steal cattle, rob
and ravish, and the outposts of civiliza-
ton were not safe. General Roca, the
Sheridan of the River Plate, was sent
with a brigade of cavalry to the frontier
to prevent this sort of thing. East and
west across the territory runs the Rio
Negro, swift, turbid stream like the
Missouri, with high banks. Fifty miles
or so from the mountains the river
q narrow pathway through which every
thing that enters or leaves Patagonia
by land must 90. Across this pass of
fifty miles General Roca dug ditch
twelve feet deep and fifteen feet wide.
The Indians, to the number of several
thousand, were north when the work
was done. raiding the settlements. AS
spring came they turned to 90 south
ward as usual, in a long caravan. with
their stolen horses and cattle. ROca
galloped around their rear, and drove
them night and day before him. When
they reached the ditch they became be-
wil3ered, for they could not cross it, and
after few days of slaughter the REM
nant that survived surrendered and were
distributed through the army as SOL
diers, while the women were sent into a
semi-slaverY among the ranchmen they
had robbed. The dead animals and men
were buried together in the ditch. and
there has been no further annoyance
from Indians on the frontier.
The few that remain seldom come
northward, but remain around Punta
Arenas, the only settlement in the
Strait, hunting the ostrich and other
wild game, trading the skins for whis-
ky, and making themselves as wretched
as possible. The robes they wear are
made of the skins of the guanaco, Il
species of the llama. and the breasts of
young ostriches. There is nothing
prettier than an ostrich robe, but each
one represents the slaughter of from
sixteen to twenty young birds, and
they are getting rare and expensive as
the birds are being exterminated, as
our buffalues have been. - William T..
Ca1rtlS, tn Rdrper'S Magazine.